


esprisse blue

by wednesday



Series: Writing Rainbow [8]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23535709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/pseuds/wednesday
Summary: His trip to Manaan had not gone how Theron had expected – not that he had known what to expect other than something shady and Imp related.
Relationships: Female Imperial Agent | Cipher Nine/Theron Shan
Series: Writing Rainbow [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1472090
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17
Collections: Robot Rainbow 2020





	esprisse blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gammarad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Red](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23011912) by [Asymptotical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/pseuds/Asymptotical). 



His trip to Manaan had not gone how Theron had expected – not that he had known what to expect other than something shady and Imp related. Now Theron was secretly leaving the planet with an Imp agent in tow. At least Beniko had her own transport. He didn’t think he was at the point in all this mess where he’d allow a Sith on his ship. Not yet – the way things had gone with Colonel Darok and his Sith counterpart, he had an uncomfortable suspicion this was only the beginning of his temporary truce with Lana and her agent. 

The agent that was right that moment looking around Theron’s ship with a smile that made him want to check every inch of the place, _again_ , just to make extra sure he hadn’t left any sensitive data lying around. 

“You sure you don’t want me to drop you off somewhere else? You’re the only one Darth Unethical Experiments knows for sure is after him, you might want to lay low.” Not that Theron was overly concerned about Imp infighting, but this specific Imp was an asset right now. 

“Don’t worry about me, Theron,” she dragged out the letters of Theron’s name in a way that might have been just someone sounding out a new word; with the smile still on her face, however, Theron was pretty sure this was going somewhere else, “knowing my face won’t help him and his allies much. Besides, what better place to disappear than Nar Shaddaa?” 

“Well, then, make yourself at home,” Theron said and frowned, “not too much at home.” 

Cipher looked at him with an expression that was probably meant to be innocent and sat down on the nearest chair. Theron was really bad at reading Chiss – the eyes threw him off and took away almost half the usual humanoid tells. 

“Tee-three, look after our guest while I get us in the air.” The astromech let out a string of troubled sounds, but didn’t protest. 

Theron left them and got the ship off planet and on course for Nar Shaddaa in record time. He had checked the ship before letting Cipher step foot on it, and he wasn’t in the habit of leaving anything important anywhere easily accessible anyway, but the bar for ‘easily accessible’ for a Cipher agent wasn’t anywhere near other people’s idea of easily accessible. Even if everything but the flight systems had been fried, having someone like himself on his ship unsupervised felt more stress-inducing as an unscheduled meeting with Saresh. 

When he got back, Cipher was still sitting and Tee-three was whistling mournfully. 

“T3-G2 = failing the assigned task // Guest = deceased.” 

Theron blinked, looked at Cipher, who looked very much alive and ready to ruin Theron’s day and possibly career, looked back at Tee-three. 

“Buddy, you may need to run some diagnostics on your sensors.” 

It didn’t look like Cipher had moved while Theron was in piloting, but that didn’t mean much. He didn’t _think_ she had done anything to Tee-three, and Tee-three was more than capable of protecting himself, but… 

“T3-G2 = starting immediately // You = need help disposing of the body?” 

“No, uh, that won’t be necessary.” Tee-three beeped in acknowledgment and rolled away. 

“Your astromech helps you get rid of bodies often?” Cipher asked, and even Theron could tell she was trying not to laugh. The red eyes didn’t change, but Theron thought he was getting marginally better at interpreting her smiles. It helped that Cipher smiled a lot around him, though it did also put Theron in a constant state of mild paranoia. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Theron sat down and tapped the table between them until the board lit up. “Dejarik? We have a few hours before we reach Nar Shaddaa.” It felt like he was setting a trap and immediately walking into it himself, but there wasn’t much else to do on the ship. Theron was absolutely not letting Cipher anywhere near a terminal of any kind. 

“With pleasure,” Cipher purred and leaned forward to examine the very unremarkable standard Dejarik board. Theron might have felt almost insulted, if Cipher hadn’t been so straightforward about it. What’s life without a little friendly seduction between enemy agents, or so Jonas kept telling him. 

Theron set up the board for a new game and tried not to think about how much that smile was actually working on him. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a Chiss smile so much. Before today he would have been ready to believe some species quirk made them incapable. Maybe a cultural thing from a predator-like origin? Showing those fangs to other Chiss was probably some kind of challenge or insult. Oh. Possibly that’s why she was doing it to Theron all the time. 

“Tell me, do you have any synthetic blood in the medbay?” The question sounded like idle curiosity while Cipher contemplated her next move, which made it infinitely more suspicious. 

“Probably.” There were eight bags, half of them adjusted for human biology. Theron didn’t have enough data on Chiss to know if any of it would be compatible with _their_ biology. “You don’t look like you’re in dire need of a transfusion. I thought the med droids looked you over back on Manaan.” 

“Oh, nothing like that, you needn’t worry.” Cipher finally made her move and looked up at Theron. “It’s a Chiss thing.” 

She smiled her sharp-fanged smile while her Savrip decimated Theron’s K’lor’slug. Somehow he wasn’t surprised she was turning this into close-quarters combat. 


End file.
